


The Lost Bantha Cup

by legends_saga



Category: Star Wars Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 11:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16973412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legends_saga/pseuds/legends_saga
Summary: There’s a thing about having children that no one tells you about. Whatever you’ll do will make you end up in two of three ways: Wet, dirty, or exhausted.





	The Lost Bantha Cup

There’s a thing about having children that no one tells you about. Whatever you’ll do will make you end up in two of three ways: Wet, dirty, or exhausted. Han didn’t just have _one_ child, but three of them, and was therefor persumably three times as exhausted and wet after he and Leia had somehow managed to bath Anakin and the twins and get them to bed. It had been a nerve-wracking process: Jaina refused to get her hair washed properly, Jacen forgot about drying and slipped trough Han’s hands, leaving a trace of water in the hallway and Anakin had just figured out his interested in how water errupted like a volcano between his fingers when he smashed them to the surface. Most problems had been solved after around an hour, with only Jaina gifting her parents a sulky grimace that Jacen returned in pure solitary while making very clear that she was - in his words - _overexegerticing_. Han could only wonder if he giggled afterwards because he realized that the word sounded wrong, or if he thought his self-invented neologism was actually funny. When it came to Jacen, there was no knowing about that for sure.  
But all grudges and jokes where instantly forgotten when Han took the holopad from the drawer.  
“Alright, who’s picking the story for tonight?” He threw a glance at Leia leaning in the doorfast, watching the children gather on Anakin’s bed since it was his turn for the day. She looked astonishingly beautiful as always, even with the obvious hints of tiredness on her face, but he also saw some sort of sadness in her eyes. Reading stories was the kids “dad thing” - and while she loved watching how their eyes widened in fascination when he read, it made her realize even harder that they didn’t have anything that was purely a “mom” thing, not really, at least. He gifted her his best loving smile before turning around.  
“Made your choice yet?”  
“Why are you even asking?” Jacen almost sounded annoyed, rolling on his back, head leaning from the bed. “He always picks the same story.”  
Han raised an eyebrow at his youngest son, and Anakin just nodded. Any normal four-year old with two older siblings would’ve probably fired back at his elder brother, but that wasn’t Anakin’s thing. Saying much in general wasn’t.  
But Han knew the story he wanted to hear anyway, and had told it often enough to know it word by word without even looking.  
“There once was a little lost bantha cup...” he started, making himself some place on Anakin’s bed too. Jaina immediately snuggled herself to his side, Jacen followed a little more reluctant, and Anakin rested his head in his lap, just listening.  
Han had never wondered much about why the boy had such a special interest in that particular story. Why it was always the first one he choose, and seldom let up from it if Han or Leia hadn’t accidentally mentioned some adventure that needed to be talked about. But Leia had wondered, and when Han looked down at Anakin’s little face, he found himself almost worrying to.  
“Just think of what the story is about, Han. A calf that lost his herd and wanders off alone to find them, being either rejected completely or just sent from place to place.”  
Whenever he felt the stab of guilt for not having the possibility to spent as much time with his children than he probably should have, Han tried his best to remind himself that sending them away when things got rough kept them safe and alive. It had been hard, at times. Had been hard not to be there for his childrens’s first words, to see them flinch away when he tried to hold them because they barely remembered him. His heart had almost shattered into pieces when - after it had been finally time to take Anakin home once and for all - he’d been almost frightened and had instantly started to cry if someone aside of Winter or Chewie attempted to hold him. _He was reached from one place to another without ever understanding where he belonged to._   
“And then the calf was united with his family again.” He ended, forcing himself to a smile when Anakin quietly whispered the last words of the story: “Once and for all.”  
“Once and for all.” Han repeated. _Once and for all._


End file.
